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Re: Small Cell Hive

OK well now quite a few SC bees have hatched, they are an assortment of sizes, some of them very small. I've had a better look at all the combs. Some of them are a real mess of cell sizes, but there are 2 almost perfectly drawn ones and one fairly good. So I've transferred the hive into a breeder hive that has 3 frames sectioned off with an excluder. The 3 best frames are in there with the queen. As the others hatch I'll cut out the comb, put in new foundation, and let the bees re-draw them. HOPEFULLY, now there's a growing population of small ones they'll do a good job. Also, the LC bees are at least several weeks old, once there's enough young SC ones to take over domestic jobs the older ones should mostly become foragers, which they were before they joined this hive, so in theory it will mostly be sc bees drawing the combs.

Re: Small Cell Hive

While admiring my nicely drawn comb, i spotted a varroa running across it!. So this small cell stuff better work!

It's taken nearly 2 months to get to this stage, and the last thing I did was remove most of the older LC bees by moving the hive to the other side of the yard.

It has been harder than i thought to quickly get 5.5 mm bees to this point using wax foundation, and has involved some fairly intensive hive management. I think for others thinking of doing it i would recommend using the plastic 4.9 drawn comb as an easier less hands on way. For me though plastic is too unatural I won't use it. But as a result I've had to waste 5 pieces of SC comb foundation, which were not drawn right and I've had to cut them out and put new foundation in the comb.

It's still a small hive but will just be in winterable condition in time. I'm going to do some more SC hives and have a seperate apiary of them. But i will not go through the hassle of making them from 5.5 mm bees again i will take them as splits from this hive next spring.

Re: Small Cell Hive

It was common practice back when some of us were going through the regression phase to post photos of our comb with steel metric rules on them. It was a moment of celebration and accomplishment. I'm sure the old guy's word is good, but nothing like seeing it for ourselves. Besides, having the ruler on there gives us a way in Photoshop to move it around and measure the whole comb.

Re: Small Cell Hive

I know, I was around back then. I only just posted my own comb comparison photos on my blog. I was quite happy with myself. It's nice to finally have spare comb instead of just foundation all the time.

Re: Small Cell Hive

Originally Posted by Barry

It was common practice back when some of us were going through the regression phase to post photos of our comb with steel metric rules on them. It was a moment of celebration and accomplishment. I'm sure the old guy's word is good, but nothing like seeing it for ourselves. Besides, having the ruler on there gives us a way in Photoshop to move it around and measure the whole comb.

Originally Posted by Oldtimer

What a trusting bunch!
Oh well, if you insist, I should be able to get a shot of the same comb with a ruler on it later today.
If I'm not lieing, you both owe me one.

Great- now thanks to Barry, Oldtimer realizes that he can Photoshop the ruler in his photo to be larger, thus fooling us all into believing his comb is smaller than everyone else's!

The little bee returns with evening's gloom,
To join her comrades in the braided hive... -Tennyson